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The Scroll newspaper has been in print since 1905, when BYU-Idaho was known as the Ricks Academy, a locally run school with a newly-developed high school program. At the time this newspaper was known as the “Student Rays,” and was printed monthly. In 1933 the name of the newspaper changed to “The Purple Flash.” In 1937 the name was changed again to “Viking Flashes,” and in 1938 the name finally changed to “The Viking Scroll.” The paper continued under this name until 1972, when it changed to “The Scroll.” The Scroll is still in print at BYU-Idaho as its official newspaper.

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Permission is granted for the contents of the “Historical Ricks College/BYU-I Scroll” digital collection to be copied for the limited purposes of private study, scholarship, or research. Any copying of the contents of “Historical Ricks College/BYU-I Scroll” collection for commercial purposes is not permitted without the express written consent of BYU-Idaho.

News • 3
S e p t e m b e r 13, 19 95
Changes may soon come
about in Ricks' nursing
program.
Volleyball takes second
at Ricks Classic.
Wednesday
e a t h e r
I n s i d e
Arts 28
Comics 37
Opinion 6
People 26
Sports 33
World 10
'Every one in two a winner!'
Ricks applicants face
Wheel of Fortunate7
with admissions policy
By Michelle Wendt
Bulging at the seams, and with more
wanting to get in, Ricks College is try­ing
another admissions policy, but this
time it will be drawing some names by
chance for admittance, in an attempt to
maintain its longstanding "open door"
approach.
The new policy, described as "equal-access
selection" will use a random
drawing for the final step of the process,
the administration announced Monday.
The school will continue to admit top
applicants and drop the bottom, using
high school grades, ACT scores, difficul­ty
of classes and spiritual preparedness
as criteria. They are rated according to a
computer formula. Those who are
awarded academic scholarships will be
^automatically admitted. All others will
St
New policy highlights
• Random selection
or "equal access pool"
• Top applicants
still admitted
(acadmic, spiritual
preparation)
• "Holding pool"
receives second,
more extensive
evaluation
• Evaluations give
careful look at church
activity, personal
essays, Seminary
attendance and
recommendations
By David Browning
5 l 0 i
be placed in a large "middle group."
This middle group will then undergo
closer scrutiny. Essays; school activities;
and recommendations from bishops,
Seminary teachers and counselors; will
decide which students are selected.
Again, the top applicants of this group
will be accepted and the bottom ones
disqualified.
Students still in "limbo" will make up
a new middle group (comprised this
past year of approximately 2,000 stu­dents)
who qualify "spiritually and aca­demically"
to attend Ricks. Names will
be placed in an "equal-access pool"
from which about 1,000 names will be
drawn, said Brent Kinghorn, communi­ty
services vice president.
Students in the middle group will
have a 50-50 chance of being admitted.
Administrators said the new policy
was adopted because of the large num­ber
of worthy applicants who weren't
admitted. This fall 1,551 students were
denied admission, many of them mak­ing
up a large middle group similarly
prepared to students who were accept­ed.
They said students in
the middle group had
such similar qualifica­tions
that it was difficult
to choose one student
over another.
"They were all close
enough that we couldn't
tell who should be admit­ted"
Kinghorn said.
President Steven
Bennion said in recent
years the college has
turned away many quali­fied
applicants because of
an enrollment ceiling of
about 7,500 full-time stu­dents.
Pres. Bennion said the
equal access selection
method seeks to continue
the spirit of the open
door admission policy
that allows any qualified
student to attend Ricks.
"However, the spirit of
the open door policy has
been challenged as enroll­ment
pressures grow due to an
increase in retention and the number
applying for admission" Pres. Bennion
said.
The number of applicants increased
from 6,900 in 1991 to 7,800 in 1995.
During these same years, the number of
spaces for new freshmen decreased
from 4,850 to 3,700.
The open door policy was approved
by the Ricks Board of Trustees, consist­ing
of 12 members including the First
Presidency of the LDS Church.
"They feel that Ricks College is an
institution that should be available to
the total church membership in the
United States and Canada as long as
they're spiritually and academically pre­pared
for a church college" Kinghorn
said. "Ricks doesn't want to become
another elitist institution."
The school wants to balance acad­emics
with "other considerations"
Pres. Bennion said. "The average
high school grade point average
(of incoming students) has
increased from 2.7 in 1984 to 3.4
in 1995. We worry about becom­ing
even more academically
selective than this."
Administrators have not yet
decided if the new policy
will take factors of geogra- wto.
phy and gender into \ \
account.
The former policy, passed V*
a few years ago, admitted
a certain percentage of
students from each of
seven geographical loca­tions.
Each percentage
would be different, and
approximately the same
percentage would be
admitted year after
year.
Ricks has also
previously
tried admit
ting more
equal
num­bers
of
male and
female stu­dents.
Kinghorn said they
should have these
final details decided
within two months.
s C o l l e g e • R c x b u r g , I d a ho